Again, FG warns Nigerians of possible fresh lockdown

The Federal Government has warned of a possible fresh lockdown of the country over the violation of the guidelines on the ease of the lockdown in the country.

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu gave the warning on Thursday in Abuja, at the 27th joint national briefing of the committee.

According to him, Nigerians must continue to respect and follow all the guidelines instituted, failure which it may be pushed to review and possibly change them if compliance with the eased lockdown guidelines continues to be a problem.

The national coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, gave this warning at the daily briefing of the Taskforce on Thursday.

“While we have allowed the relaxation of the lockdown, we are putting measures in place to curb COVID-19 spread. Our modelling shows that the positive effects of full compliance with the Eased lockdown will be very similar to the effect of a full lockdown.

“This is why we need everyone to fully comply with all the guidelines issued. Please respect and follow all the guidelines we have instituted. If we continue to see violations of these guidelines, we will be pushed to review and possibly change them,” Aliyu said.

On his part, the Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said that those who tested positive and are in isolation centres have not committed any crime thus are not being held in prison.

“So we really want to work together with everyone to ensure that we all achieve our goals. The security in treatment and isolation centres is the same thing like any other established organisation as security is the responsibility of the police working with the state governments in that particular place.

“In certain circumstances, the states have had to increase the security in those facilities. In honesty, we don’t want to ‘securitize’ this response. We want people and organisations to take responsibilities,” Ihekweazu said. (Daily Trust)